Coffey

Sasha getting eliminated that early was genuinely surprising to me.

Melina still being able to do the splits on her entrance was cool. Then Sasha trolling her with it after the elimination was great.

Interesting finish.

I dunno who that female ring announcer is but, goddamn. Respectfully.

The opening troll job by Seth Rollins was great.

I legit don't even know what his character and gimmick even are other than adding "hausen" to the end of random words. Is he supposed to be like a Sammy Terry parody or something?

That finish was awesome. Never seen Jarrett do The Stroke with the guitar still on their head! Shit looked devastating.

This feels hyperbolic to me. It was more "hey, this is the drizzling shits & you should stop wasting TV time on it." Which was a fair criticism, same with the Dark Order. And them letting Peter Avalon's contract expire, if anything, just makes it feel like those criticisms were justified to me. Of course, also the roster is a lot stronger now than it was when AEW first started if I'm being completely fair.

I have no loyalty to either side but from reading the tweets, I did find it interesting that MSL said Janela was fired for drinking on the job & Janela said he was never drunk on the job. Didn't refute drinking.

It's interesting with as many people as they've been releasing lately that they're still choosy on their decisions to release people or not. Like Toni Storm just dipped & WWE didn't seem to give a fuck. But they deny Ali? Storm was on current TV & in a feud with Charlotte, Ali hasn't done anything in months.

This just genuinely made me feel really sad & really old.

Hit the nail on the head with the entrance routines. One of the first things I would do, which is an easy fix if I were involved with AEW, it try to change up my entrance each time I came out. Instead of doing it exactly the same way every single time, like they do in WWE to the point where it doesn't feel natural anymore & starts just feeling like a video game. Music starts - come out & stand here - do a pose - move to there - do a pose, etc. It feels inorganic & doesn't leave any room for spontaneity.

They're not even on television & outside of the people at the facility, how many people see them at all? It's complete lunacy.

Tegan Nox, Nia Jax, Ember Moon, Mia Yim, Franky Monet, Scarlett Bordeaux, Mercedes Martinez, Lana, Ruby Riott, The IIconics, Mickie James & Chelsea Green are the women I remember WWE releasing off the top of my head & I'm sure I'm forgetting several as they fired like 300 people in 2021. They also let Tay Conti slip through the cracks. But it's a good thing they can just bring back Lita & Trish Stratus for eternity & continue to push the narrative that they were some how super workers & legends of the sport. Almost as bad (and sad) as each time they try to bring back Goldberg when he wasn't even a WWE star.

If Cody leaving also means he takes Brandi with him, I think overall it's just a net positive for AEW to be honest. I say that as someone that thinks the first PPV with the Cody/Dustin match was one of the top matches in company history, too. I think Cody has value but lately he's just been a headache.

The NCAA national championship is tonight. RAW is going to get slaughtered in ratings this week.

Bray Wyatt to slap with Malakai Black & Brody King?

How many POC are in positions of power behind the scenes, not just wrestlers on TV?

First of all, I had no idea that Tay Conti had working elbow strikes that looked like that. That was the first thing I noticed. Her "knockout" strike looks great. The Gotch Piledriver on the table was also vicious. Secondly, I don't know if that split/slip in the thumbtacks by The Bunny was planned or a happy accident but either way, her selling it & it leading to the finish was great. She pulled out the brass knuckles but then something went wrong so she wasn't able to use them & it led to the barbed wire rear naked choke, which was an awesome finish. Modern wrestling is weird in that kayfabe is so far dead & buried that the heel of the match afterwords gets a ton of respect & support on social media due to all that they endured. Britt Baker last time & now The Bunny this time. Not saying it's not deserved, just shows how much the curtain has really been pulled back. These women busted their asses & I'm glad to see people acknowledging that. I just hope that Honky Tonk Khan's dumb ass tweet/shit-stirring & the Swole drama doesn't overshadow it.

Same reason the Kofi run didn't matter to me, to be honest. You can't be a comedy character for five years & then just expect to be a big deal because they give you a belt. Also, not saying this is necessarily the case with Big E, but sometimes it feels like in WWE when a long-time character wins a title, it's more of a panic move than or a payoff. It never felt like Big E moved up the card to me & then he was a top guy. Same with Drew McIntyre & Jinder Mahal.

This is probably true but they just came out with that statement that they were looking for younger, more attractive women. Toni is 26 & beautiful, so not sure exactly what they're actually looking for. Is 26 too old for WWE standards now? I mean, if she asked for her release, it's obviously because she's disgruntled with how she's been used, right? So this isn't just an overnight WWE blunder. If I had to sign 10 female pro wrestlers right now from anywhere in the world, I think Toni Storm would be in my top 10. So this is lunacy to me.

Who knew that Nick Khan & Vince McMahon, Jr. didn't like cake? I mean, Vince is pretty old, so I reckon I can see that... but damn. How can you not market Toni Storm & her look in modern society?

Yeah, he still has a literally babyface & it's tough for me to buy him as an ass-kicker but he certainly has promise. What's irking me right now is the way he keeps putting on the Tazmission so lazily. Like, that's your finisher, man. Slap that shit on. Why is he like doing the leg grapevine part first? So awkward.

I feel like with these cards, I'm not going to bother trying to watch the show live. I think for the first time in a long time, I'll pick & choose matches after the show to seek out. Shingo/Okada will be good. The winner against Ospreay will be good. I will watch Naito/Cobb. KENTA/Tanahashi, not sure - maybe ten years ago. Now it's a question mark. I don't care about any of the multiman matches. I do have some morbid curiosity for Shibata but really, I just want him to be healthy. I don't get the mentality but that's pro-wrestlers for you.

That kickout got me. Won't fucking front. This match is GREAT.